Bellary nightmare

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Goa was pretty nice, but unless you like sunbathing, there wasn't an awful lot to do there. After a few days we made the decision to get to a place called Hampi- site of some astonishing Hindu ruins.

The train journey took about 8 hours, and was one of the most memorable yet! Travelling eastwards through the hills of the Western Ghats, the scenery was stunning. We also had some excellent conversation in the form of a cheery indian family and a Malaysian Phd student.
Perhaps the conversation was a little too good; when it came to our stop at Hospet we must have nattered right through it because we completely missed it! Was a little annoyed that we'd have to wait an hour till the next stop of Bellary.

The ramifications of missing the stop were slightly worse than imagined. Bellary, although fairly innocuous sounding, is not a place you'd want to visit. Don't ever go to Bellary!!
On walking down the station platform we got some funny looks, and then out of nowhere a lovely ragged old man with unkempt hair hawked up some phlegm and spat it in Eva's face! He then shouted some abuse and stormed off looking disgusted. Still not quite sure what it was that warranted an eyeful of gob but needless to say we were all rattled by this unfriendly welcome (especially Eva).

It soon became apparent that no westerner had ventured to this city before. Lots of people staring at us at the station and muttering, quite unsettling, and naturally we tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. As the next train was ages away we tried looking for a bus to take us to Hospet.
A well dressed man in a shirt and trousers started to talk to us. Although I was a little wary at first he turned out to be our knight in shining armour as he befriended us and guided us to the bus station, which was a fair walk away along the chaotic high street. The worst was not over yet by a long chalk, the bus station wait was an extremely uncomfortable experience. We were quickly surrounded by a massive throng of people, who had absolutely no reservations about staring unashamedly at us like we were aliens, often pointing and gawping! With so many eyes on us it was hard to stay cheery. I tried smiling and waving to try and dissipate some of the tension. A few of the kids smiled and tried to talk back, and they were ultimately the only thing that kept me sane.
A number of times the same thoughts ran through my head, from 'what am i doing here?', 'something bad is going to happen', and 'I want to go home!'. Being stranded in this remote, unfamiliar and hostile city with no immediate means of escape was certainly the worst experience I've endured here yet. Can only be thankful that I had company and a friendly face to help us out.
After a half hour wait (which seemed like hours) we managed to get on a crammed coach, where we endured the gruelling 2 and a half hour journey over dusty pot-holed roads. It was still miles better than being at the station though!
Arriving in a Hotel at Hospet was a huge relief. I thanked our new found friend, who's name was Ganesh, profusely for guiding us through the ordeal. What a nice man!
Certainly taught us our lesson, we were still able to laugh looking back at the day- if a little uncomfortably. Hopefully this will be the last time!

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